ATI 5000 series Video Card

[helberger]

Hi,

How many here are using an Ati 5850 or higher Video card with the latest driver(s) and how satisfied are you? or which issues do you have?  I would like to upgrade my 8800GT card to something better.

Thanks

System: I7 920 @3.6 6GB Ram, 2x500BG H/D, NV8800GT 512 MB, 22" Monitor, etc.

[RallyFan]

I'm using the 5870 with the 9.12 drivers.  So far no issues and is performing well with FTX products in combination with an overclocked i7-920, but I can't give you a comparison to nVidia's GTX285 coz I've never used that one before.

There are others in this forum who are having problems with the 9.11 and 9.12 drivers though, fortunately for me I'm not one of them 

Cheers

Jason

[helberger]

Thanks for your reply, I was hopping someone who used NV prior switching to ATI 5800 to post

their experience. The place I buy my cards don't like returning them unless they are defective.

I am just curious about the IQ and performance in REX 2 clouds.

Thanks

[Gazbo]

I have just replaced my 8800GTS with an ATI Radeon 5850.

So far, not impressed as far as FSX goes.

Despite downloading the latest drivers, I'm getting lots of graphics corruption ranging from flashing scenery tiles, parts of my aircraft randomly turning transparent, right through to virtual cockpits becoming a mess of random polgons.

Anyone have any solutions?

[BradHosking]

GTX 275 here... was a ATI 3870 (so similar to your 8800GT)

Wouldn't go back to ATI again for FSX personally. Cloud formations with an ATI card used to give me 5 FPS...same scenario with the Nvidia Card, no difference in FPS.

However I did enjoy the ATI Card in other games so I am not a dedicated Nvidia person... just found that the Nvidia seemed to perform better for what I wanted.

Mine is a Zotac GTX 275... 5 Year warranty with Zotac and a very nice looking card.

[mozzy_06]

I might chime in here. I've just gone from a GTX 9800 to a HD5850 and have not been impressed so far. See my post: http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=18462.0

Since posting, I've been doing some more experimenting and have definitely improved performance. I think high res clouds have a huge effect on ATI cards. Regarding ATI Tray Tools - the terminology used for the various Supersampling etc is a little confusing (AA modes -box, narrow tent, wide tent & edge detect?) so I've yet to find the optimum. I must say that, flying in some areas, the 5850 runs like a dream. Texture blurrys are a thing of the past and running the LOD radius at 6.0 is great. Oh.....and water setting up a notch to 2x mid 

The main problem I have is eliminating tree shimmer. ATM an 8x AA cripples performance. I'll post some settings later.

[gheeD]

I guess it haven't changed alot, i have HD4870, and i find 8x BOX AA setting to be the best for me. For example edge-detected 24x aa gives really bad fps compared to the result.

Have you guys with HD5xxx and 10.1 drivers tried the new hotfix that amd released this week?

edit: Here they are: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Grey-screen-and-vertical-line-corruptions.aspx they might help, atleast worth a try.

[Gazbo]

Well... I'm a bit embarrased.... my FSX.CFG file contained some nVidia 8800GTS references, once I deleted the FSX.CFG file, and let FSX recreate it, I no longer have any major graphic glitches with the HD5850 & FSX. I never had issues with other software (Grid/GTR2/Dirt)

I've not noticed much difference visually between the 5850 and the old 8800GTS, which says a lot for the 8800GTS. Certainly the 5850 runs faster, and running FSX with all the sliders maxxed out doesn't look much different.

I'm running a GA-P55A-UD3 motherboard with i5 750 CPU, 4Gb of 1333Mhz RAM 10.1 drivers for the 5850.

[Phil Manhart]

I might chime in here. I've just gone from a GTX 9800 to a HD5850 and have not been impressed so far. See my post: http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=18462.0

Since posting, I've been doing some more experimenting and have definitely improved performance. I think high res clouds have a huge effect on ATI cards. Regarding ATI Tray Tools - the terminology used for the various Supersampling etc is a little confusing (AA modes -box, narrow tent, wide tent & edge detect?) so I've yet to find the optimum. I must say that, flying in some areas, the 5850 runs like a dream. Texture blurrys are a thing of the past and running the LOD radius at 6.0 is great. Oh.....and water setting up a notch to 2x mid 

The main problem I have is eliminating tree shimmer. ATM an 8x AA cripples performance. I'll post some settings later.

I've never owned an nVidia card, my first card was an ATi Rage and my current is an ATi 4850x2 2GB and for Anti-Aliasing on an ATi card, make sure that 'Adaptive Anti-Aliasing' is Disabled and that your method of filtering is 'Box'. This will give you the best performance when using any type of AA with an ATi card. Last time I tried using ATi Tray Tools it didn't give the option for Adaptive Anti-Aliasing unless it was in the driver tweaks page of the program.

'Narrow Tent', 'Wide Tent', and 'Edge Detect' are types of AA Filters that you can use with ATi cards. The only two setting you should ever use is 'Box' and 'Edge Detect' as the other two usually present strange artifacts along edges. 'Edge Detect' is also only usable when a program supports it, in which case FSX does not. FSX will however allow the Adaptive Antialiasing, which will KILL your framerates with clouds because your video card will attempt to AA the cloud edges...

EDIT: I also thought I'd mention that running REX with textures greater than 1024 kills my system with alot of clouds present. I have set my max texture slider to 1024 as a result and loaded REX textures with the same setting.

[HercFan]

I've never owned an nVidia card, my first card was an ATi Rage and my current is an ATi 4850x2 2GB and for Anti-Aliasing on an ATi card, make sure that 'Adaptive Anti-Aliasing' is Disabled and that your method of filtering is 'Box'. This will give you the best performance when using any type of AA with an ATi card. Last time I tried using ATi Tray Tools it didn't give the option for Adaptive Anti-Aliasing unless it was in the driver tweaks page of the program.

'Narrow Tent', 'Wide Tent', and 'Edge Detect' are types of AA Filters that you can use with ATi cards. The only two setting you should ever use is 'Box' and 'Edge Detect' as the other two usually present strange artifacts along edges. 'Edge Detect' is also only usable when a program supports it, in which case FSX does not. FSX will however allow the Adaptive Antialiasing, which will KILL your framerates with clouds because your video card will attempt to AA the cloud edges...

EDIT: I also thought I'd mention that running REX with textures greater than 1024 kills my system with alot of clouds present. I have set my max texture slider to 1024 as a result and loaded REX textures with the same setting.

A few tips I might explore in here (I have a 4870 X2).

Quick questions: do you have AA and AF set in FSX or in CCC? Running in DX9 or DX10 (in FSX)?

[NaveenB]

Hi,

How many here are using an Ati 5850 or higher Video card with the latest driver(s) and how satisfied are you? or which issues do you have?  I would like to upgrade my 8800GT card to something better.

Thanks

System: I7 920 @3.6 6GB Ram, 2x500BG H/D, NV8800GT 512 MB, 22" Monitor, etc.

I just switched from a GTX 285 to a 5970 to run eyefinity on a big 5040 x 1050 desktop.

So far I am really happy, I would say it's almost a home-run(baseball analogy)

The card runs about 10 fps higher(who says FSX is not GPU limited!?!?) but I have to run with 16x Adaptive multisampling as opposed to 8x Supersampling. Supersamplings kills performance with the card.  There are some mild tearing issues with the v-sync, but the increase in frames has made me a very happy camper as I can now comfortable sim without fear of slow-down.

With this new card I have hit my performace goals with FSX which is 5040 x 1050, almost all sliders maxxed(autogen at dense), 20 fps+ in the Beechcraft Duke @ Tongass Fjords Sitka with building storms.  I am averaging about 25 fps in this scenario when I was averaging 16 or so with the 285.  This has made me a very happy camper.

I use alot of the orbx cfg tweaks

Bufferpools, small part reject radius, Autogen limiter.  TBM 110

I am using DX9 with ENB bloom

[Phil Manhart]

I've never owned an nVidia card, my first card was an ATi Rage and my current is an ATi 4850x2 2GB and for Anti-Aliasing on an ATi card, make sure that 'Adaptive Anti-Aliasing' is Disabled and that your method of filtering is 'Box'. This will give you the best performance when using any type of AA with an ATi card. Last time I tried using ATi Tray Tools it didn't give the option for Adaptive Anti-Aliasing unless it was in the driver tweaks page of the program.

'Narrow Tent', 'Wide Tent', and 'Edge Detect' are types of AA Filters that you can use with ATi cards. The only two setting you should ever use is 'Box' and 'Edge Detect' as the other two usually present strange artifacts along edges. 'Edge Detect' is also only usable when a program supports it, in which case FSX does not. FSX will however allow the Adaptive Antialiasing, which will KILL your framerates with clouds because your video card will attempt to AA the cloud edges...

EDIT: I also thought I'd mention that running REX with textures greater than 1024 kills my system with alot of clouds present. I have set my max texture slider to 1024 as a result and loaded REX textures with the same setting.

A few tips I might explore in here (I have a 4870 X2).

Quick questions: do you have AA and AF set in FSX or in CCC? Running in DX9 or DX10 (in FSX)?

I run DX9 with the HDR Mod using John V's enbseries.ini settings.

I use AF within the FSX settings and have it set to Application Preference in CCC.

I always have the Anti Aliasing box in FSX unchecked and set the following in CCC;

    Screenshots: AA set to 8x Box with Adaptive Anti Aliasing

    VFR/Rural Flights: AA set to 8x Box without Adaptive Anti Aliasing

    IFR/Dense Urban Flight: AA set to 4x Box without Adaptive Anti Aliasing

    Too lazy to care about changing: AA set to 4x Box without Adaptive Anti Aliasing

[HercFan]

Many thanks pmanhart. A few things I will be trying out (just to cross check with the DX10 option that I am now running).

And now that I figured out how to use properly FSX GO, it makes things way easier!

EDIT: one thing I forgot to add. Dunno if you have Active Sky Advanced, but I modified the cloud setup to have stratus instead of cumulus, therefore cutting down on those ATI killin's fluffy ones! Made a huge difference and the visuals are still fine (at least to me).

[Phil Manhart]

Many thanks pmanhart. A few things I will be trying out (just to cross check with the DX10 option that I am now running).

And now that I figured out how to use properly FSX GO, it makes things way easier!

EDIT: one thing I forgot to add. Dunno if you have Active Sky Advanced, but I modified the cloud setup to have stratus instead of cumulus, therefore cutting down on those ATI killin's fluffy ones! Made a huge difference and the visuals are still fine (at least to me).

Always here to help!

One thing to note is that the max AA you will get using DX10 is 2x by checking AA within FSX, and you cannot override it from the CCC. I've experimented trying to get anything higher but it seems that while in DX10 mode FSX will not allow anything higher. You may be able to use the Adaptive Anti Aliasing with the 2x though, having not experimented with that myself. I'll give it a whir and let you know what I find out.

I don't have ASA but that's a durned good idea to improve frames, maybe I might splurge and throw down on it this afternoon when my wife isn't looking...

[HercFan]

The idea of the ASA mod came to me on a whiff. I had noticed there was an option to basically determine between cumulus and stratus (the flat ones) percentage. I figured "what the heck". So I tried it last night and it worked great. I use REX 2.0 (and I think you do also).

I went to DX10 after reading some comments here and find it quite good. But I might get a DX9 setup going in FSX GO and try some of your advise just to see. At first (in DX10) I had not turned ticked the "application.." box in CCC. Once I did, some of the graph glitches I had noticed were gone and it looked even better. So I have both AF and AA set to "application" in CCC and using in FSX (for DX10). I would like to get a stable DX9 going so I can run the ENB mod. But I am also starting to be a believer that W7 64 and DX10 work quite well with FSX (with the unfortunate AA limit).

But the best news of all is that I am back to flying instead of scratching my head and tweaking!

[Phil Manhart]

That's great to hear HercFan, one other piece of information though. Since the Catalyst 9.10 drivers, we have been unable to control AF within CCC, hence the reason why I let FSX run that for me. It used to be I could use 8x AF in CCC and get almost an 8 frame jump in FPS (with very little noticeable change in visual AF quality), but with FSX controlling it, it is at 16x.

[HercFan]

Yup. I learned that piece of info recently also. That's why I turned back to AF within FSX, and "application" in CCC.

I was considering rolling back to older Catalyst drivers. What was to trigger to all of this is that I could not for the live of me figure out why my FSX was now different than what it was last summer (i was away from flight simming from late August to mid-December). I could not figure it out. That's when I started looking into the entire driver issue. And learning yet again. This is so much hassle just to get FSX runnin'!!!

[helberger]

Hi Guys,

Nice to see that this threat is still alive, an update here, I spend a few month checking the various forums for an answer.

I had to come to the conclusion that getting an ATI card could be problematic and not worth the hassle. I am now

the proud owner of a EVGA GTX 285 1GB. Must say it works very well with FSX, the problem is that this card is as expensive

as the 5870 and hard to find. I am glad I made the move.

Helmut

[HercFan]

Pman,

Just wanted to say thanks for some of the settings tips. Got me a real nice flight last night back in DX9 mode. Happy to say that fixing issues is done and I am back to only flying.

[NBouc]

I recently replaced my NVIDIA 8800GTX 768 MB with an ATI HD5850 1 GB, thinking the 8800 was slowly dying. In turned out that it was simply kept underpowered by Windows 7 "balanced" power saving option. Once I realized that, I switched to "High performance" power saving option and tried both cards under the same parameters.

Even though the 5850 performed very well, I cannot say it outperformed the 8800GTX. To some extent, both cards seem to perform as well as the other, with occasional slightly higher FPS with the 5850. I used a pristine FSX.CFG with both cards (rebuilt after switching card).

Setup:

Drivers for 8800GTX: Nvidia Vista-64 182.50 (better image quality than the Win7 drivers)

Drivers for HD5850: ATI Catalyst 10.1 Window 7 64-bit

AA and Anisotropic set inside FSX.

AA 4x and Anisotropic 16X set in the drivers (override application).

VSync forced to ON.

Display settings - Scenery: Target FPS 60

Detail radius: Large

Mesh complexity: 100

Mesh resolution: 10 m

Texture resolution: 7cm

Water effects: Low 2x

Scenery complexity: Very Dense

Autogen density: Normal

Special effects detail: High

My flight departs YPEC (All Orbx FTX regions and sceneries installed) in the Aerosoft Piper Cheyenne II during a fair weather day (Broken 5/8 cumulus at 12500 ft, 30 miles vis) for a quick tour of the bay and returns landing, with weather theme change to Major Thunderstorm half way into the flight. Resulting FPS might sometimes seem low to some of you, but keep in mind that I am running 3 monitors through a Matrox TH2G digital 3840x1024x32 (3 times 1280x1024). This easily lowers the FPS under 2/3 of what a single monitor would display.

All readings taken inside the 3D cockpit because that is where I sit when I fly.

Starting location, YPEC parking 1: HD5850 18-20 FPS, 8800GTX 17-18 FPS

Aligned on runway 25: HD5850 13 FPS, 8800GTX 11-12 FPS

Overhead the power station:

- looking left towards Warnevale: HD5850 14-15 FPS, 8800GTX 13-16 FPS

- looking front-right towards YCNK: HD5850 28-30 FPS, 8800GTX 24-26 FPS

- looking at the tip of the right wing: HD5850 20-24 FPS, 8800GTX 18-23 FPS

Weather changed to Major Thunderstorm

- inside the clouds at 8000 ft with precipitations: HD5850 15-22 FPS, 8800GTX 15-20 FPS

- under the cloud layer at 2200 ft with precipitations: HD5850 10-15 FPS, 8800GTX 11-13 FPS

- left downwind for runway 25, facing the sea: HD5850 30 FPS, 8800GTX 27-30 FPS

- on final runway 25 over the beach: HD5850 9-10 FPS, 8800GTX 8-10 FPS

If I was replacing something like a 8400GS, I would be very pleased for sure. But the reality is that I probably just exchanged 4 quarters for a dollar.

Despite this fact, I can appreciate the value of the 5850 (which costs me half the price of the 8800GTX some years ago). The image quality is as good as with the 8800GTX, ATI rendering the textures with a bit more vivid colors, but the 8800GTX doing it with a more natural look.

I would like you to take this "comparative test" with subjectivity. It is in no way a scientific test and some factors I did not think of might have played a role in the results.

Best regards to all readers,